[Tango-L] Report No. 3 on the Tango Festival & Mundial Buenos Aires 2011

[Shahrukh Merchant]

I was wondering whether to bother with more reports, but with Alberto's 
and Keith's further encouragement, here goes ... :-)

My overall highlight: Orquesta Típica Andariega (see last item below).

Yesterday, Monday, was a national holiday, so the events on Sunday went 
on later than usual. Monday was also the day to pick up the tickets for 
the finals of the Championships early next week (Salon Tango and Stage 
Tango). I thought I might brave the crowds this time, but was scared off 
by reports that (a) some people were going right after Sunday night's 
events ended at about midnight to stand in line ALREADY (for 11 hours 
all night long in the cold?!) and (b) that if you weren't willing to get 
there before it opened you were not going to get tickets.

In fact, I heard that by the time the doors for ticket distribution 
opened (at 11 am), the line was 9 blocks long. But one German girl I met 
later on Monday told me that she went at noon (one hour after it opened) 
and did get tickets anyway, in the 13th row (not too bad), but only 
after having to stand in the line for 3 hours! So I'm not altogether 
sorry that I decided to stay at home instead (it will be televised 
live). If I had stood in line, I would have chosen the Stage Tango 
finals (you could get tickets for just one or the other). If I'm going 
to be watching from 13 or however many number of rows away, there might 
as well be some acrobatics that I can actually see (and as a side 
benefit I know whom to stay away from on the milonga floor)! Besides, 
salon dancing for exhibition, especially on such a large scale, seems 
like an oxymoron ...

But returning to the events of Sunday and Monday, here is a brief recap 
of the ones I went to, and some asides (just for Ilene :-)).

Sun, 6 pm: Supposedly a "Gran Milonga" to open the Mundial part of the 
festival, with Orquesta Típica Criolla. Now with a name like that, and 
since they were performing for a Milonga, you'd expect golden-age-style 
danceable music but no, at least the last 1/2 hour that I attended was 
very much "How long can the singer make his breathless pauses between 
the equally breathless notes (when they got around to playing them)?" It 
would have made even the late great Gavito impatient!

Sun, 7 pm: Not on the official schedule, of course, but I met up with 
Migdalia Romero, author of "Tango Lover's Guide to Buenos Aires" for a 
brief chat about her book in the café area, and to talk about ideas for 
getting it wider circulation. By the way, it's worth a dozen times its 
list price of $15--don't make a trip to Buenos Aires without it, even if 
you've been before and think you know the Tango scene. (No, she didn't 
ask me to make this plug--I had bought my own copy earlier and some of 
the resources there were unknown to me as well!) See 
www.tangoloversguide.com

Sun, 8 pm: Tango Big Band (D'Coté). Falls into the "this I've got to 
see" category. Tango music with a big band sound? Well, since I like 
both genres, I went. The core group is a quintet of piano + 4 
saxophonists (covering the range of soprano sax to alto sax, best as I 
could tell) and the first three numbers they played was just with the 
quintet. These were actually surprisingly danceable and their version of 
Reliquias Porteñas made me want to get up and dance! Then a 
supplementary corps of drum, 4 trombones, and 3 trumpets showed up, and 
things got a little more iffy. In short, IMHO, the trombones worked but 
the trumpets didn't. Their rendition of Gallo Ciego was admirable in 
terms of appreciating the effort that the arranger would have had to 
make for this rather large ensemble, but the end result was somewhat 
strained. Their last piece, however, sounded very much in the style of 
Benny Goodman (it was supposed to be a Tango, but none that I 
recognized--the arrangement didn't sound Tango-like either), and was 
very good (possibly because it wasn't trying too hard to be a Tango). 
But it was fun to listen to, and really just to see how much 
out-of-the-box Tango music is happening.

Sun, 9 pm, 10 pm: Two modern orchestras, but they are kind of blurring 
together in my mind. One was Orquesta Astillero and the other an unnamed 
group. One played more techno tango, I believe, or maybe I have that 
impression just because there was some psychedelic video patterns, 
vaguely synchronized to the music, being projected behind them. The 
other was more enjoyable and played modern-sounding Tangos on 
traditional instruments. Sorry, can't remember much more than that about 
those.

On Monday, the qualifying rounds of the Mundial started: 30 rounds all 
day long, with 6-8 couples per round, each round consisting of 3 
golden-age pieces. This was held on the main stage and a large number of 
spectators were seated, watching this. Between the announcements, 
introduction of the couples, etc., there was basically danceable music 
about 50% of the time between 2 pm and 10 pm, and many used the dance 
floor area to do just that: dance during what effectively became 30 
mixed tandas with longish "cortinas" of the emcee's announcements.

The musical events were therefore all on the smaller adjacent "Horacio 
Ferrer" performance area.

Mon, 6 pm: Cardenal Domínguez: Good Tango singer, young guy, performed 
with sparse accompaniment, sometimes one guitar, sometimes 2, and a 
couple of pieces with a bandoneón and violin as well. Low key, but pleasant.

Mon, 7 pm: Noelia Moncada: Very young Tango singer (early 20s?) but 
already well acclaimed. Her voice can range from a husky sound that 
sounds almost nightclub-like, to a powerful voice suited for an opera 
hall. Very enjoyable--well, except for the photographer loudly clicking 
away at least every 5 seconds without exaggeration. I mean really, how 
many more still pictures do you need of a singer who already has had 
1000s taken? I am going to have to modify my standard complaint about 
Tango singers who think it is all about them (though in this case it was 
...) to photographers who think it is all about *them*!

Mon, 8:30 pm: Orquesta Típica Andariega: The orchestra comprises three 
bandoneons, piano, singer - all young women and all from Europe (except 
the singer), but living and working in Argentina for the last few years. 
The pianist and orchestra leader is a classically trained (and 
excellent) pianist from France, and immersed in Tango for the last few 
years. Plus three violins and a bass (all men and apparently all 
Argentine). The program lists Sandra Márquez as the singer--she was 
absolutely excellent (there is a different singer listed on the website 
of the orchestra)--sings with the orchestra as "another instrument" 
rather than trying to dominate as do most contemporary Tango singers (to 
the detriment of dancers and often to the detriment of the piece). Got 
there late for this concert, so just heard the last three numbers, but 
that was enough to make it my favourite of these 2 last days. They have 
their own milonga (or one named after them, at any rate) at Buenos Ayres 
Club (Perú 571) on Sundays from 10 pm onwards and they play there every 
week, apparently. Definitely got to check that out.


Shahrukh